Meet 2014’s Digital Consumer

By Michael Patrick McSweeney (@mpmcsweeney)

American shoppers continue to embrace mobile and digital channels, a newly released study published by eMarketer suggests. The digital marketing research aggregator estimates that the coming year will bring strong growth rates in mobile commerce, social media and digital content consumption.

Spurring this growth is a rise in mobile phone usership. The total number of U.S. mobile phone users is expected to top 250.6 million in 2014, a 1.6 percent increase from 2013. Mobile phone internet users will jump 13.7 percent to 162.9 million, while the amount of smartphone users may reach 159.9 million, a 14.2 percent climb.

“Desktop Internet and social network usage growth have plateaued, and while some properties are still growing their user bases quickly, much of the space’s momentum has moved to mobile,” the report stated.

The eMarketer study breaks down U.S. usage rates for social media, Facebook and Twitter, as well as mobile commerce and digital media consumption. For more on how the mobile and online spaces are expected to grow and change next year, we break down eMarketer’s “U.S. Digital Media Usage: A Snapshot of 2014” to learn more.

Mobile eCommerce Usage

eMarketer found that growth rates in tablet adoption are expected to remain strong next year, with the number of tablet owners rising 9.4 percent to 140.1 million Americans. In particular, the number of iPad users is estimated to climb 3.9 percent to 72.6 million by 2014.

The pool of U.S. tablet mobile commerce buyers will jump an estimated 17.7, reaching 83.7 million people in 2014. Further, eMarketer’s data indicates that 51.8 percent of tablet users will make a purchase online using their device next year.

Mobile Social Media Usage

eMarketer’s report suggets that Facebook, long the dominant social media outlet in terms of usership, will see slower growth in 2014, at least in one key area. Facebook’s desktop user growth will slide to 3 percent increase . Overall, desktop social media adoption is anticipated to grow 3.6 percent next year, reaching 169.5 million users. Twitter access from this platform is expected to have the highest growth rate at 12.9 percent.

Growth rates for mobile social media use, eMarketer reports, will be much higher. The total number of U.S. Twitter users who will use their mobile devices to access the service is expected to hit 32.7 million, up 16.7 percent from 2013. Similar rates are estimated for Facebook, with a 16.1 percent growth rate for a total of 115.2 mobile Facebook users.

Mobile Digital Video Usage

The eMarketer report estimated robust growth rates for digital video viewership in the next year. The amount of video viewers who use their mobile phones is projected to hit 88.7 million, a 19.2 percent increase. Slightly stronger growth is expected for smartphone video viewers, as eMarketer forecasted a 20.4 percent climb to a total of 86.6 million Americans.

Digital video viewers across all mobile platforms will climb 4.4 percent, reaching 190.6 million in 2014. eMarketer expected slightly slower growth – an 8.3 percent increase to 130.7 million – for digital TV viewers.

To learn more about the rate at which Americans are adopting mobile devices as platforms to see, share and shop online, read the full eMarketer report here.